Shaman

The "Master of the Animals" represented in Neolithic cave paintings has Bronze Age counterparts in the natures of Orion in the Aegean and Enkidu in the Sumerian/Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh.

Some shamans encourage the belief that they possess supernatural qualities which transcend human nature. To wit, shamans are usually credited with the ability to speak to spirits and perform feats of magic such as astral projection and healing. Shamans are usually found in tribal cultures with nature religions and beliefs in ancestor spirits, though some persons in modern Western Cultures also consider themselves to be shamans. The shaman's office is usually held to be hereditary and his chief assistants are held to be his ancestral spirits.

One of a shaman's main functions is to protect individuals from hostile supernatural influences. He or she deals with both good and bad spirits, performs sacrifices and procures oracles. Shamanistic traditions often include induction of trance through drugs (often neurotoxins known to be hallucinogens), chanting, fasting, dancing and music. The drum (tungur in Altaic) is an important instrument in shamanistic ceremonies, which may be used to induce autohypnotic phenomena. Researchers also suspect that in some cultures schizophrenia or similar conditions may predispose an individual to the role of shaman.

The Sami shaman is named naid (nåjd). They formally vanished during the Middle Ages, mostly because their happenings was threated as a form of excitment (i.e. hypnotic trance in medical terms), and such actions was fobidden by the law in favour for Christianity. The naid was not wearing the special kind of shaman-suite like those their Siberian colleges weare. The rune drum played an important role in their work. A ring or some other spicement, probably symbolizing a frog, was during the play moving around on the drum coat, which contained some hundreds of runes (elks, sun, thunder, et al). And from its travelling on to a rune, predictions and conclusions was made by its travel path and matched rune. Unfortunately, only about hundred drums has been preserved until today, and probably the most known is the Linne-drum—a drum that was given to Carl von Linne during his visits in the northen Sweden. He later gave it to a museum in France, and recently it was bringed back to the Swedish National Museum. A naid's work was either a "vocational education" from elder people, or something that had been inherited from one's parents. They where engaged for any tiny little thing, and they took payment for their services. The drum was adorned with gifts from earlier successful doned services. The norse mythology had a female shaman called Volva who practiced seid. See also: Shamanism, Complementary and alternative medicine

There was also a comic book superhero named Shaman.

Reference

• The classic study of this phenomenon is Shamanism, by Mircea Eliade.

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